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CRIME

Ex-contestant of Klum’s model show acquitted of drunk driving

The troubled former contestant of Heidi Klum's show Germany's Next Top Model was acquitted of drunk driving by a court in Nuremberg on Tuesday.

Published: 17 June 2008 15:44 CEST
Ex-contestant of Klum's model show acquitted of drunk driving
Gina-Lisa Lohfink, left, admits she had a few. Photo: DPA

Gina-Lisa Lohfink, 21, who was a contestant on Heidi Klum’s show in 2007, left the court room without being sanctioned due to a lack of evidence, German daily Bild reported.

“My grandfather is dying. Those who know me from TV know what a straight-shooter I am,” Lohfink tearfully told the courtroom in what Bild called “a scene reminiscent of a film drama.”

The prosecution had pushed for fines totalling €25,000 and a one-year driving ban. Lohfink was caught in October, 2007 in the passenger seat of a rental car with a blood alcohol content of 0.168 without a driver’s license.

Bild reported that the would-be Topmodel admitted she had been drunk during the incident. “We’d been in a disco,” she said. “I’d had a lot to drink.”

The court was unable to determine who had been in the driver’s seat. Lohfink’s 17-year-old friend, who was also in the car at the time, initially said Lohfink had been driving but quickly switched to the passenger seat before authorities reached the car. But during the trial, the friend told a different story. Lohfink told the court she had been sitting in the passenger seat and had dozed off right away because she was intoxicated, the paper said.

According to news agency AP, despite her active media presence, there was also confusion about Lohfink’s financial situation and whether she could afford to pay the proposed fines.

“I’m not guilty. I have a clean conscience,” Lohfink told the court.

CRIME

Germany arrests Syrian man accused of plotting to kill soldiers

German authorities said Friday they had arrested a 27-year-old Syrian man who allegedly planned an Islamist attack on army soldiers using two machetes in Bavaria.

Published: 13 September 2024 11:17 CEST
Germany arrests Syrian man accused of plotting to kill soldiers

The suspect, an “alleged follower of a radical Islamic ideology”, was arrested on Thursday on charges of planning “a serious act of violence endangering the state”.

The man had acquired two heavy knives “around 40 centimetres (more than one foot) in length” in recent days, prosecutors in Munich said.

He planned to “attack Bundeswehr soldiers” in the city of Hof in northern Bavaria during their lunch break, aiming “to kill as many of them as possible”, prosecutors said.

“The accused wanted to attract attention and create a feeling of insecurity among the population,” they said.

German security services have been on high alert over the threat of Islamist attacks, in particular since the Gaza war erupted on October 7th with the Hamas attacks on Israel.

Police shot dead a man in Munich this month after he opened fire on officers in what was being treated as a suspected “terrorist attack” on the Israeli consulate in Munich.

The shootout fell on the anniversary of the kidnap and killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games by Palestinian militants.

The 18-year-old suspect had previously been investigated by authorities in his home country Austria on suspicion of links to terrorism but the case had been dropped.

The incident capped a string of attacks in Germany, which have stirred a sense of insecurity in Germany and fed a bitter debate of immigration.

Three people were killed last month in a suspected Islamist stabbing at a festival in the western city of Solingen.

READ ALSO: ‘Ban asylum seekers’ – How Germany is reacting to Solingen attack

The suspect in the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group, was a Syrian man who had been slated for deportation from Germany.

A federal interior ministry spokesman said if an Islamist motive was confirmed in the latest foiled attack, it would be “further evidence of the high threat posed by Islamist terrorism in Germany, which was recently demonstrated by the serious crimes in Mannheim and the attack in Solingen, but also by acts that were fortunately prevented by the timely intervention of the security authorities”.

The Solingen stabbing followed a knife attack in the city of Mannheim in May, which left a policeman dead, and which had also been linked to Islamism by officials.

Germany has responded to the attacks by taking steps to tighten immigration controls and knife laws.

READ ALSO: Debt, migration and the far-right – the big challenges facing Germany this autumn

The government has announced new checks along all of its borders and promised to speed up deportations of migrants who have no right to stay in Germany.

The number of people considered Islamist extremists in Germany fell slightly from 27,480 in 2022 to 27,200 last year, according to a report from the federal domestic intelligence agency.

But Interior Minister Nancy Faeser warned in August that “the threat posed by Islamist terrorism remains high”.

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